iPhone 8 release date, price and specification

25 Oct 2016 by James Rogerson

The iPhone 8 launch in 2017 ties in with the tenth anniversary of the iPhone

While most of the world is still enjoying the iPhone 7, we’re already looking ahead to the iPhone 8, a phone which could be hugely exciting even by Apple standards, as 2017 (the year it’s arriving) is the tenth anniversary of the iPhone, and big changes are expected.

There are already a surprising amount of rumours surrounding the iPhone 8 too, and more are sure to pour in over the coming months.

Here then is everything we’ve heard so far about Apple’s next flagship. Make sure to check in regularly for all the latest updates.

iPhone 8 Release date and price

For years now Apple has been launching new iPhones in September, so September 2017 is the most likely launch date for the iPhone 8.

That’s when it will probably be announced at any rate, but Apple typically starts selling its phones one or two weeks after an announcement.

So, what exact days are we looking at? Well, Apple typically announces the phones early in September, with the iPhone 7 being announced on September 7th, and a September 9th announcement for the previous two flagships, so look out for the iPhone 8 on or around one of those dates.

That would mean we’d see it in stores either around September 14th-16th if there’s a one week delay, or September 21st-23rd if there’s a two week wait.

As for the price, the iPhone 8 is sure to cost at least as much as the iPhone 7, which would mean £599 for a 32GB model, £699 for 128GB and £799 for 256GB, or from around £36 per month on contract.

Display

The biggest likely change to the screen is a move from LCD to OLED. The former is used by most current smartphones, while the latter is mostly just used by Samsung, but delivers more vivid colours and strong contrast.

Apple’s been rumoured to be making the move for a while and we’re expecting it to finally happen this year.

The size will probably stay the same (4.7 inches), though there’s some talk that Apple could be launching a massive 5.8-inch phablet – that would likely be the iPhone 8 Plus, not the standard iPhone 8, but if the Plus is getting bigger it’s possible that the standard phone will too.

There’s no news on what the resolution will be, so there’s two ways Apple could go. It could either keep the resolution at 750 x 1334, which would make a certain amount of sense, as Apple’s never chased pixels.

Or it could up the resolution, which is also very possible, as it hasn’t changed the resolution of its flagship phone in years, so it’s arguably time, especially if the screen gets bigger.

Other things we’ve heard – but which are less likely – include the possibility of a curved screen, or one which, according to DigiTimes, could have the fingerprint scanner built into it, removing the home button altogether.

Design

Aside from the possible removal of the home button, discussed in the display section above, the main design change we might see is a glass back rather than a metal one.

That’s been rumored a couple of times, most notably by one of Apple’s casing suppliers, as reported by Nikkei, so there’s a fair chance it’s true.

It would make sense too, as Apple has kept a similar design for the last few years, so the iPhone is overdue a change, and getting an overhaul for its tenth birthday would be fitting.

However, it’s been suggested that not all models of the handset will be glass, so you might have a choice of glass or metal.

We can speculate about other aspects of the design, for example the headphone port clearly won’t be coming back and the iPhone 8 will likely be water and dust resistant, just like the iPhone 7. Apple might work to further hide the antenna lines too – though with a move to glass they might not even be necessary.

Power

There’s little in the way of specs rumours yet, but we can take a good guess at some things. For one, the iPhone 8 will most likely run iOS 11, as that’s likely to launch alongside it.

The phone is also likely to use an A11 or A11 Fusion processor, which will probably be quad-core, as Apple only just moved from dual-core to quad-core chips for the iPhone 7.

RAM could stick at 2GB, but we reckon there’s a good chance Apple will up it to 3GB, since the iPhone 7 Plus already has that much.

Camera

We don’t yet to know much about the camera either, but early rumours suggest there won’t be too much of a change, with the standard iPhone 7 likely to stick with a single-lens snapper.

We’re bound to see some improvements – perhaps a jump in megapixels for example, but nothing is known yet.

The front-facing camera will probably stay at 7MP, since Apple only just gave it a boost for the iPhone 7 and doesn’t tend to change the megapixel count every year.

Features

Given that the iPhone 8 will mark the iPhone’s tenth anniversary we wouldn’t be surprised if Apple included some exciting new features.

Current rumours include the possibility of an iris scanner, according to DigiTimes, which we’ve seen on other phones, such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, so that wouldn’t be a huge surprise.

The phone might also have a Smart Connector, just like the iPad Pro. In the Pro’s case it allows for the connection of accessories, like the Smart Keyboard.

There’s also talk that Apple might finally support wireless charging. Expect plenty of other feature rumours to emerge over the coming months.